Customer Reviews

A Killer's Kiss

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With the first few pages of the seventh crime tale starring Victor Carl readers may well be tsk-tsking, thinking, "He should have known better." Right, he should have, but lapses in judgment are very much a part of his charm. Carl is a Philadelphia DA, not at all short changed when it comes to smarts but who also makes the worst decisions. He's a bit of an idiosyncratic hero, and therein lies some of his attraction. Readers pull for him and turn pages to find out what in the world he's going to do next.

With A Killer's Kiss we immediately know what he did first. As Carl says, "Old love doesn't disappear; it is too potent an elixir for that. Instead it burrows deep into bone, like a parasite, waiting until just the right moment to reassert itself and sabotage your life."

So, when ex fiancé Julia shows up at his apartment apparently wanting to relight their former fire, he doesn't waste any time. He forgets that she abruptly dumped him for wealthy Rolex wearing Dr. Wren Denniston. However, this brief recapturing of what once was or perhaps never was is interrupted by a pounding on his apartment door. Two detectives are there to tell him that Dr. Denniston has just been murdered and, quite obviously, he's a suspect.

Coincidence? Clearer minds would not think so. But for Carl logic flies out the window as far as Julia is concerned. He suddenly finds himself having not only to clear himself but also determines to prove Julia's innocence.

That in itself is a monumental task but enter a crazed criminal and his attendant goons demanding some missing millions. They not only make matters worse but very nearly do away with Carl.

With picture perfect descriptions of Philadelphia areas, A Killer's Kiss is one more robust, rousing, riot of a tale from the inexhaustible Lashner. To carry the alliteration further, it's steamy, suspenseful, stay-up late reading.

- Gail Cooke

First, a confession: I have all the books in the Victor Carl series and they all sit here(with the exception of Hostile Witness) half read: they were good, but it was always too much noir and not enough plot or too much plot and not enough noir. And, about 100 pages overweight. But the latest gets it just right: Victor is still ethically challanged; he wisecracks but not as much and when he does, they work and propel the story, rather than distracting from it("In love, as in boxing, it is always dangerous to move up in class"); justice is done which in Victor's world is not the same as what the law demands. And in this latest, Lashner shows a talent for creating interesting and believable secondary characters, with Derek a young African American who I think we will see in the future and Gregor, an eastern European thug. They are not drawn too broadly as in earlier novels(the older Jewish PI in an earlier work was just too much). The acknowledgment page says that Lashner is on hiatus from Victor and will return at some point. I'll look forward to it.

Victor Carl is a lawyer and by his own admittance, not a great one, but I have to say he is probably one of the best characters I have ever read in a mystery novel. What I really love about these books is that you pick up any one of them and jump right into his life.

In A Killer's Kiss, Carl is unexpectedly reunited with an old flame. If you know how Victor's life works, this will not be a wondrous reunion, it will in fact turn out the way most of the Philadelphia lawyer's adventures do-badly. Without delay or much hesitation, he finds himself in lust, willing to try it again. This, despite the fact that this former flame left him at the altar years before without explanation.

Julia however, is still married and has recently been receiving anonymous and openly threatening letters she has incorrectly attributed to Carl. She suggests that they meet, shows Victor the letters and which he explains are not from him. The meeting goes sour when Victor lashes at her verbally about why she left him. She leaves, but the meeting don't stop. The love they had seems to rekindle, at least in Victor's shameless mind. Julia calls him one night from outside his building and asks if she can come up. Thinking he has a chance to re-consummate the relationship, he agrees. Shortly after her arrival, there is a knock on the door. In his hallway are two Philadelphia police detectives, who want to question Victor about the murder of Julia's husband, only two hours ago.

This story is intricately spun as all Lashner novels are. With disparate, yet parallel plot lines and a unique set of characters that leave the reader wondering how all this will mesh in the end.

In A Killer's Kiss Lashner has perfected in Victor Carl, a character whose sarcastic wit you will love to read. He is the perpetual underdog looking for that one big case that will bring notoriety, and financial happiness. Unfortunately, Victor continuously seems to put his life in danger to achieve his goals. A Killer's Kiss is no exception.

Armchair Interviews says: Lashner's wit and cynicism are still there, and they are as fresh as the first Victor Carl novel. You WILL laugh out loud!

I also have read all of the Victor Carl novels written by this author and have enjoyed most of them. This book was off to a promising start, but somewhere in the last half of the book, as Victor Carl keeps trying to unravel the question of who killed his ex-girlfriend's husband, where the missing 1.7 million dollars is and to what extent all of the various whacky characters in the book may have contributed to the answer to those questions, I began to feel as though I was reading a remake of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

The characters from that movie played by Jonathan Winters, Ethel Merman, Terry Thomas, Milton Berele, etc. would have been right home in the plot of this book. I couldn't wait for it to finish.

I am pleased to read that the author is giving the central character, Victor Carl, a vacation for a few years. With this novel, he has earned it.

Although Philadelphia defense attorney Victor Carl's fiancée left him for another man, the flame for her has never completely diminished. When she steps back into his life, claiming regret, Victor once more finds himself falling for a woman who never reveals much about herself. When her husband is murdered, the evidence initially points to Julia, but Victor becomes a person of interest because he was with Julia the night her husband was killed. It isn't long before the case takes a serious turn as more evidence is garnered, with Victor now the primary suspect. Victor's goal is to prove himself and Julia innocent, but his efforts are hampered by a Russian thug and his hit man, who want Victor to find the 1.7 million dollars Julia's husband stole from them.

This seventh installment of the Victor Carl series is as entertaining and fun to read as the first. Victor Carl is a man of cynicism and wit, with a high sense of self-awareness as to his flaws, yet who is not invested in changing his, at times, unethical behaviors. Lashner inserts the usual cast of quirky characters in a plot that moves at a fast pace and is amusing throughout. This reviewer is disappointed to read this series is going on hiatus while Lashner pursues other writing endeavors. Hopefully, fans will see Victor Carl in print again soon.

If you're a fan of the old noir mystery genre, books that begin with the entrance of the sexy dame with a secret, A Killer's Kiss should please. Victor Carl is no PI, but he is a defense attorney, handsome, smart, and not as successful as he'd once planned. And he's never gotten over the fiancee who jilted him for a richer man, so when Julia makes a sudden reappearance into his life, Victor allows his heart to muffle the warning bells that clang in his mind. Even when he learns that her husband has just been murdered and she keeps handing him a pack of lies.

Of course, there's a set up of monumental proportions. There are also a Russian gangster and his sadistic henchman, a Byronic drug addict, good and bad cops, a housekeeper with a heart of gold, Victor's most recent hustler of a client who wants to be his PI, and various other colorful, threatening, and ambiguous characters, all of whom want something from Victor. And will do what they must to get it. As for Victor, he'll do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of things with his skin intact (literally.)

A Killer's Kiss is a thriller that reveals its truths gradually, retaining a few genuine surprises for the final chapter.

I awoke at 12:30 AM and decide to read a few more pages of "A Killer's Kiss" until I felt sleepy again. I finished it just before my alarm went off at 5:00 AM. I've enjoyed everyone of the Victor Carl books and this may be my favorite of all of them. The only regret I have is that Lashner is going to "shelve" Victor for the time being so he can create other story lines After all ... Patterson leaves Cross for awhile; Deaver leaves Rhyme someimes; Lippman writes of someone other than Tess occasionally ... so here's hoping that Victor will return soon, and I am looking forward to his new characters. "A Killer's Kiss" ... a great story ... highly recommended!!!!

Don't ever miss a book by William Lashner. 'A Killer's Kiss', his seventh book featuring Philadelphia lawyer Victor Carl, is a pungent brew of conspiracy, murder and sex tinged, as always, by Lashner's palpable atmosphere of loss and failure. Times have changed since Philip Marlowe went down his mean streets and the streets have gotten meaner. Victor Carl is the good guy, but with Carl good is relative, it's just that every other character is more venal, greedy, crooked and downright scary. The plot moves like the Concorde - the love of Carl's life has just turned up again, dragging a murdered husband in tow -
and behind her come slick cops, crooked lawyers, Russian gangsters, sadistic stiletto artists. This is one of those books that you buy to last a week's holiday then finish the first day and start again.

Lawyer Victor Carl has driven away the last of his partners and is stooping to stunts to free his clients--like a youth caught up in a drug crackdown. But when his great lost love calls, when she says she's having problems with the man she left him for, when she seems to regret the breakup as much as he still does, Carl thinks he may be on the road back to happiness. There is, Carl believes, one great love in every person's life--a love that, if chance allows, could transform the mundane and make everything right. For Carl, that love is named Julia. But when Julia's husband is found murdered, the police think the case comes down to Julia or Carl. Both have motive--the only thing is, Carl knows he didn't do it and he can't believe that his great love did, either.

The police breathing down his neck would be enough problem for most people, but European mobster looking for the money that Julia's husband stole from him shortly before his death piles on. Then there's someone actively trying to frame Carl for the murder--which also puts him in the mobster's target sites. Carl wants to believe Julia is innocent, that the two of them actually have a chance together. And everything looks great when he comes up with an alibi for Julia. But if Julia didn't do it, the cops are sure he did--and that isn't what he had in mind at all.

Author William Lashner creates a complex and sympathetic character in Victor Carl, gives him a host of psychological problems, a charming sidekick in the possibly innocent druggie, and a whole range of problems and antagonists--both those who assault him from the front and those who stab him in the back. By appealing to the universal theme of lost love, Lashner gives the story a depth that goes beyond the simple murder/sleuth/solution of an average mystery. There were times when I wanted to shake Carl by the lapels and tell him to wake up and smell the coffee--but it was easy to understand why he had to follow the path he chose.

I'm happy to recommend A KILLER'S KISS.

One of my favorite literary passages of recent memory is found at the beginning of PAST DUE, in which a police crime scene is compared to a Nativity display. A KILLER'S KISS, William Lashner's latest novel, contains an equally memorable passage about the ease with which one can fall back into disastrous habits with an old lover. It is this immutable truth that forms the basis for A KILLER'S KISS, as well as for the fall from grace of Victor Carl, Lashner's quietly deteriorating protagonist.

Carl has undergone a gradual but inexorable transformation since Lashner introduced him in HOSTILE WITNESS. He has been the antithesis of the stereotypical Philadelphia lawyer; a criminal defense attorney whose clients' collars are dingy rather than white, Carl will do whatever he can to win. His worldview has grown darker and darker with each successive novel, and with A KILLER'S KISS he is circling the drain ever faster and not without assistance. As the book opens, Carl's law partner is on sabbatical, and the firm is being kept financially afloat by a questionable retainer. Carl, therefore, is not only bereft of adult supervision but has the keys to the liquor cabinet to boot.

It is against this backdrop that Julia, Carl's ex-fiancée, abruptly comes back into his life, seeking amnesty and something more. For it is on the night that Julia appears on his doorstep, ready to close the deal that she abruptly reneged upon years before, that her husband --- the man she left Carl for --- is murdered. As she and others seem bent upon making him the fall guy, Carl has a difficult time seeing through the fog of his lust that he is being set up by someone who is a step or two ahead of him.

Julia's husband, you see, was a urologist --- the final insult, from Carl's viewpoint --- and not a very good one. He accordingly needed other ways of supplementing his income, one of which involved a Russian mobster named Gregor Trocek. And who does Trocek believe has his money? If you guessed Victor Carl, it doesn't mean you're peeking ahead. Carl must extricate himself out from under the veil of suspicion for murder and somehow reunite Trocek with his long-lost money. Luckily, Carl has some assistance from an unlikely source but is caught between Trocek, the law (and some police officers who want very badly to arrest him), and Julia, who may be the most dangerous factor of all.

Lashner is incapable of writing badly, and the way that he has handled Carl's subtle deterioration over the course of several novels has been masterful. In addition, he concludes A KILLER'S KISS with an acknowledgment containing a metaphor that is as good as anything he has ever written. Given his continuous upward trajectory, it is hard to escape the feeling that, as good as A KILLER'S KISS and his other books have been, Lashner's best work may still be ahead of him.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub